The Qur'an is not only a book of law, but also contains historical facts, and is replete with names of certain nations, places and persons. Can these names be placed in the context of the present natural geography? Have they undergone any changes?

Exploring the past provides a good background to take lessons from the history. The Qur'an itself tells us to "travel through the earth and see what was the end" of earlier peoples. Yet the task is a difficult one. Natural calamities and the human factor mean that historical changes do not keep anything constant, especially when one is referring to a subject which existed thousands of years ago. Adding to this difficulty is the fact the names have assumed different forms in different languages owing to the passage of time and movement of the human race.

This work, first published in 1936, aims to give a basic understanding of the places and peoples mentioned in the Qur'an. It is based on an earlier Urdu work in 1915, Ard-ul-Qur'an, by Sayyid Sulaiman Nadwi, who was the teacher of the present author.